


beautiful ghost

by stardust_writer



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Coma, F/M, Medical Conditions, Medical Inaccuracies, Near Death Experience, please tell me if there's another way to tag this work, still don't know how to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:53:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25271188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardust_writer/pseuds/stardust_writer
Summary: Areum wakes up in a hospital and can't find Jihyun.
Relationships: V | Kim Jihyun/Main Character, V | Kim Jihyun/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	beautiful ghost

**Author's Note:**

> Warning/s: Near death experience, comatose, swearing, Spoilers for V Route
> 
> A/N: I have a different OC for each route. Areum Song is the OC I use for Jihyun/V’s route. Other OCs may appear, but for this work, Areum takes on the MC’s role. This work contains information that cannot be deemed accurate. I’m no medical expert, so please do not consider anything I’ve written here as something that could happen in real life.
> 
> Song While Writing: Beautiful Ghosts - Taylor Swift

_ “Areum.” _

_ “What is it?” _

_ The look Jihyun gave her was concerning. He was smiling, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Perhaps it was just the pouring rain, it made it difficult to see, after all. Still, the energy that her husband was emanating did little to soothe her nerves. _

_ “Nothing,” he said simply. The traffic light turned red and the pedestrian light switched to green. He wraps an arm around her shoulders, pulling her further under the safety of the umbrella he held. “I just wanted to tell you that I love you.” _

_ Areum quirked an eyebrow, but smiled nonetheless. They walk off onto the pedestrian lane. _

_ “I love you, too, Jihyun.” _

_ There it is again, a twinge of sadness in his mint-colored eyes. She wanted to ask about it but before she could even open her mouth, a flash of light blinded her vision and everything went dark. _

* * *

The first thing she registered was the beeping of the heart monitor.

It didn’t immediately occur to Areum that she was in a hospital until she heard the unmistakable chatter of medical terms from above her.

Bright light clouded her vision as she attempted to open her eyes.

“Areum! Oh, thank goodness!” A woman that looked like an older version of herself came forward. Tears pricked at her eyes as she cupped Areum’s face with her hands.

“Mom?” Areum rasped. “What happened?”

“It’s okay, honey,” her mom breathes, pressing a long kiss to her forehead. "You were in a car accident, but you’re okay now.”

She held the hand against her face, feeling the familiar warmth. The haze that clouded her brain began to disappear and suddenly it all came back. The pouring rain, the barely visible pedestrian lane, the sound of a horn. Jihyun’s arm wrapped around her shoulder.

“Jihyun,” Areum said. She tried to sit up, but her mother pushed her back down gently. “Mom, where’s Jihyun?”

Her mother's brows knit together.

"Who?"

"Jihyun," Areum breathed. "My husband?"

There's a moment of silence. Areum felt a tension build in the room. Her mother stared at her strangely then laughed nervously.

"That's funny, sweetheart." Her mother caressed her hair, still smiling. Areum could only look on, confused. "Husband! I suppose you had kids, too?"

"Mom," Areum pushed her mother's hand away and made another attempt to stand up. "I'm serious! Where's Jihyun?"

The laughter in her mother's eyes disappeared. It shifted to concern. She meant to say something, Areum knew because she parted her lips, but a doctor approached before anything could be said.

"Song Areum?" The doctor addressed her.

Warily, Areum nodded her head in recognition.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Lee Hyeok. How are you feeling?"

"I'd feel better if someone told me where my husband is."

A look of realization then sympathy crossed Dr. Lee's face. Areum wanted to ask what made him throw such a look at her.

"Ah, before that, I'd just like to ask you a quick question." He smiled the way professionals did, charmingly and reassuringly, but without depth. "Do you know what date it is today? Or rather, what day your accident happened on?"

"Of course," Areum said. The fact that he said 'what day' like she'd been asleep for longer than a couple of hours bothered her. "It's July sixteen, twenty-twenty."

The same look passed over the doctor's face and beside him, her mother looked like she had just been struck by lightning.

"Ah. Alright, before anything else I'd like to inform you that when you were brought to the hospital on the day of your accident, you were in pretty bad shape." The doctor tried to send her another reassuring smile, but Areum had her guard on. At the moment, she had only been half-listening and her other half was still trying to figure out where Jihyun was. "We had to get you into surgery immediately and you fell into a coma."

Areum's attention immediately snapped right back to Dr. Lee.

"I was in a coma?"

Dr. Lee nods.

"For how long?"

There's another moment of silence. Areum could practically see the gears turning in the doctor's head, wondering if she could handle the answer.

Her mother was the one that stepped forward.

"You've been in a coma for four years, darling."

Areum felt her heart sink. It was like the world had disappeared. All she could hear in her head was 'four years'. She'd been asleep for four years. Then, a thought crossed her mind.

"Jihyun," she said. "What about him? Is he okay? He was with me during the accident."

The thought of Jihyun no longer being there crossed her mind. Jihyun not surviving. Her hands were shaking, she couldn't handle it if that were the case.

"Please, tell me if he's alright!" She begged.

Dr. Lee took a breath, then faced Areum with a serious stare.

"Ms. Areum, when a patient goes into comatose, they only become unresponsive on the outside. The brain is still very much active, and may sometimes play tricks."

Areum only looked at him with a confused expression. This wasn't the answer she was looking for.

"There are accounts of people who go into comatose and still stay aware of their surroundings, like hearing the people close by," Dr. Lee continued. "Others have accounted that it was like they had a brief, unrealistic dream where they met with 'God' or a respected and loved person that has passed on. And some have said that while in a coma, their brains created a world of their own."

"I...I don't understand." Areum said.

Dr. Lee gave her another pitiful look. Areum was beginning to get pretty tired of that expression. She turned to her mother to say as much, except she shared the same look as Dr. Lee.

"Today's date is July Sixteen, Twenty-Twenty." Dr. Lee said simply. "Your accident happened four years ago, on July Nine, Twenty-Sixteen."

The blood froze in her veins. Nothing was making sense to Areum. A headache was beginning to form, and she could barely register the doctor's next words.

"It is highly likely that your brain created some world of its own, syncing from the time you were in the accident to today, when you woke up. There's a huge chance that the memories you have right now are all just dreams your mind conjured while you were in the coma."

"No," Areum breathed.

It was impossible. She remembered it all so vividly. Saeran luring her to the Mint Eye, Jihyun's first attempt to rescue her, their wild escape with Luciel's help. She remembered Vanderwood, Jumin, Yoosung, Jaehee, Zen—even Elizabeth the third! She remembered the day Jihyun proposed, how he lifted her up and spun her around when she said yes. She remembered the day of their wedding, when they shared their first kiss as husband and wife, had their first dance, and left for their honeymoon.

They were all so clear in her head, they couldn't just be dreams.

"No, you're lying." Areum squeezed her eyes shut. The more she thought about it, each memory became hazier. "You're lying! Where's Jihyun?"

"Sweetheart, look at me, please."

Tears were now leaking down her cheeks, even as Areum did her best to shut her eyes tight. Her mother was pulling her into her arms now. She struggled, still calling for Jihyun.

"Darling, I know this all must be so overwhelming for you," her mother said. Her voice was trembling, and Areum felt the telltale drip of tears as her mother held her tight. "And I'm so sorry that it's happening. Let's just take a deep breath and get some rest first, okay?"

* * *

A week passed.

Dr. Lee came in to check in on her everyday, each time trying to ease her into the reality of things. That Jihyun and her life with him was just a figment of her comatosed imagination. Areum refused to believe it.

She didn't want to. Her heart ached at the mere thought of it all, but even she couldn't deny it anymore. Things began to make sense when she took it into consideration.

The day Saeran lured her into the Mint Eye was July Nine, Twenty-Sixteen. She had no recollection of ever having the app he used to contact her initially, and she just went along with his early instructions without giving it much thought. The sly comments that Luciel made in the chatroom, indicating some sort of fourth wall that never seemed to make sense at the time. The way Jihyun looked at her the last time she saw him—eyes filled with a sadness that Areum only realized now meant it was time for them to part ways.

She felt a sob escape her throat. She hadn't even realized she was crying.

Areum loved Jihyun so deeply, so truly. She had an entire life with him and was ready to spend the rest of it just by his side. The fact that all those happy memories—the happiest she had—were simply figments of her imagination crushed her soul.

"Jihyun," she sobbed. She yearned for his strong arms to wrap around her, for him to press a kiss to her cheek and whisper that they would get through this, as he always did when she was upset. Except, the more she thought about it, the harder it became to imagine.

The more she tried to remember all her memories in the world she created, the faster they faded.

* * *

_ Three years later _

  
  


Areum still thought about it sometimes. After she had been discharged from the hospital, she found herself trying to recreate the traces of the world she built in her mind.

She went to the ballroom she suspected that they always held the RFA parties at, to the mountains where Mint Eye's building would have been, or to all the places she and Jihyun would have frequented.

But after a while, even she lost sight of what she was doing.

The memories began to fade faster and faster, until all she had left was the memory of her waking up from her coma.

Wait, no. That wasn't true.

At night, in her dreams, the memories sometimes came back. Areum would feel a sense of peace as she's brought back to the world she's grown used to, to the people she loved and adored. But come morning time, they all disappeared, leaving her with a vague sense of sadness. The best she could hold onto was the ghost of a memory, one where she danced with a familiar warmth, but couldn't picture his face.

These days, the only place she revisited was the coffee shop she suspected she and Jihyun used to go to all the time. At this point, she's forgotten why she decided on that shop. She just knew that she liked the way they made her coffee, and that she felt at peace whenever she was there.

Today, she stopped by before heading home from work. People always asked her why she came after work instead of before, but Areum would just smile and shrug. Because even she didn't know, she just felt like doing it that way.

"Hello and welcome! What can I get you today?"

Ateum smiled at the clerk, at Jaehee. Jaehee began working at the café about a year and a half ago, apparently after leaving an office job she thought she could be content with. Areum once thought that maybe she's seen her before, but nothing came to mind. Still, she introduced herself and they've reached a point where Areum might even call them friends.

"Hey, Jaehee. I'll have a Caffe Americano for here, please."

"That's unusual," Jaehee commented.

"It is?"

"Caffe Americano is a little more bitter than your usual choices," she explained, punching the code in the register to generate a receipt. "You just always get a drink on the sweeter side, that's all—your total is 5,000 won."

"Huh. I never thought about that." Areum handed her the money and left to find a seat as she waited for her drink.

The café was a little slow today, so Jaehee left the register to her coworker—who Areum still couldn't remember the name of after all this time—and got a start on her drink.

Gentle music played through the speakers and echoed around the shop. Areum closed her eyes, smiling a little. The notes were familiar, and in her head she could imagine herself laughing as she danced around a hazy room with a faceless entity. She was so lost in her little daydream that she barely noticed the sound of the cafe’s door bell ring.

“Assistant Ka—”

“She’s not your assistant anymore, Jumin.”

The familiarity of the voices snapped Areum out of her reverie.

She looked around the cafe wildly, but stopped herself. She tried to remember what made the voices so familiar, but nothing came to mind.

“Caffe Americano for Areum!”

She shook her head in an attempt to reduce the strange paranoia she developed and headed for the counter. She smiled at Jaehee gratefully as she took the cup out of her hands. She took a tentative sip and almost immediately scrunched up her nose.

_ Jaehee’s right _ , she thought.  _ This is too bitter _ .

She turned to leave. She’d rather just drink the coffee than tell Jaehee she didn’t like it. Except, before she could even take two steps away from the counter, a body collided with hers and spilled the hot liquid all over her.

“Ah, it’s hot!”

“Oh gosh, I’m so sorry!”

There it was, that familiar voice again. Areum’s gaze snapped up, and her heart began to beat wildly in her chest. In front of her, donning a similar surprised look, was a man with mint-coloured hair and eyes.

“I...er...It’s okay,” Areum managed to stammer. Those bright eyes were so familiar. The way his brows creased with worry almost made her want to smile for no reason other than that she found it strangely endearing.

“No please,” he said, grabbing a tissue off the counter and offering it to her. “It’s my fault. Let me buy you another one.”

“No, really, it’s alright,” Areum laughed this time. It felt natural, so easy. She took the tissue gratefully and began to dab at her blouse. “I didn’t really like the drink much anyway. But thank you, er…?”

“Jihyun,” the man supplied, hastily handing a hand out for her to shake. “Kim Jihyun.”

There’s a twinge in Areum’s heart at the mention of the name, but she can’t seem to figure out why. Instead of paying it any mind, she took Jihyun’s hand and gave it a shake.

“Song Areum.”

They’re both silent for a moment, just staring at each other, hands still clasped together.

“I’m sorry,” they say in unison. “But have we met before?”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for day 7 (July 15, 2020) of Mystic Messenger Week 2020 on tumblr. Today is a Free Day!
> 
> Come find me on [tumblr](https://stardust-writer.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/stardust_writer)!


End file.
